Is one qualified to be a cruise ship captain after serving as coast guard officer?

My ex-husband has been in the Coast Guard for almost 30 years, he is an O-6 (a Captain). He has never served a single day aboard a cutter. He is an M officer and has lots of experience inspecting ships. He knows every inch of a ship before he boards it so he knows what to look for and every reg that ship has to follow. But I don't think he could steer a dingy. So no, there are some officers that just do not have that level of experience.

Simply having served as a USCG officer, no.

A cruise ship captain requires a Master of Unlimited Tonnage license.

You can review the requirements for that here:

http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/credentials/checklists/pdf...

It's extensive, with lots of experience requirements at lesser license levels (and there's a whole series to progress through), as well as exams, before you can get a master unlimited license.

What service as a USCG officer can do is fulfill the experience requirements for a 3rd mate's license......but even then, you still have to pass the exam for that license, and you still need to get the experience for each of the next bigger licenses in the chain as you progress up the commercial license ranks......but you can't just jump straight to the end.

Most cruise ship captains I've met have 30+ years of experience with the specific cruise line they're employed by. They don't jump around much, and they almost always progress up through the ranks of the cruise line.

No. You could be a Coast Guard officer in charge of ships supplies.

Apparently cruise ship captains need far less qualifications than that.